25/07/2023 - The festival is celebrating its 80-year anniversary with a jam-packed programme and zero defections by independent productions

Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos (© Atsushi Nishijima/Searchlight Pictures/20th Century Studios)

There’s no Plan B: Venice won’t be reduced to a pan-European festival, a scenario which has been superstitiously envisaged over the past few days by its very own director Alberto Barbera, faced with the threat of Hollywood films failing to show up as a result of the screenwriters’ strike, which has now been embraced by actors from the Screen Actors Guild too. The only film scrubbed from the line up of the 80th Venice Film Festival is the opening movie, Challengers [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Zendaya, which MGM and Amazon Studios have withdrawn and whose release has now been pushed back. “There’ll be a few stars missing but all of our independent productions will be there”, Barbera reassured us at the beginning of the press conference presenting the line-up. There’ll be no shortage of prominent North American authors either, namely Michael Mann, David Fincher, Woody Allen, Frederick Wiseman, Bradley Cooper and Sofia Coppola.

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23 films (perhaps too many) are set to screen in the Official Competition of ‘Venice 80’, as was also the case last year, 15 of which are carried by authors selected for Venice for the very first time. It all begins with Edoardo De Angelis’ opening film Comandante [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a huge Italian productive effort set during the Second World War and toplined by Pierfrancesco Favino (read our news). It’s followed by The Promised Land [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Nikolaj Arcel, who previously won Berlin’s Silver Bear for A Royal Affair [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mikkel Boe Følsgaard
interview: Nikolaj Arcel
film profile] and who’s continuing his collaboration with Mads Mikkelsen, who plays an ex-Swedish army officer in the 18th century. French films in the offing include DogMan [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Luc Besson, an action movie set in New Jersey and a “monument to actor Caleb Landry Jones”, in Barbera’s words; The Beast [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Bertrand Bonello
film profile] by Bertrand Bonello, which is loosely based on a story by Henry James and which tackles the highly topical reality of artificial intelligence; Hors-saison [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Stéphane Brizé
film profile] by Stéphane Brizé, following a couple played by Guillaume Canet and Alba Rohrwacher sixteen years on from their separation.

Matteo Garrone’s highly anticipated movie Me Captain [+see also:
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film profile] is also on the agenda, charting the odyssey of two African youngsters who leave Dakar for Europe by way of “simple and direct storytelling”. Enea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pietro Castellitto
film profile], meanwhile, Pietro Castellitto’s second film after The Predators [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pietro Castellitto
film profile] (awarded the Orizzonti Prize for Best Screenplay in 2020), is a cynicism-drenched foray into the maelstrom of Rome, “a Great Ugliness, of sorts”. Saverio Costanzo is returning to the world of film after his successful series My Brilliant Friend [+see also:
series review
series profile] with Finally Dawn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Saverio Costanzo
film profile], a huge productive commitment courtesy of Wildside. Great expectations likewise surround Lubo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giorgio Diritti
interview: Giorgio Diritti
interview: Valentina Bellè
film profile] by Giorgio Diritti, while Adagio [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Stefano Sollima looks set to fully confirm the director’s talent for international action films and TV series.

In Green Border [+see also:
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trailer
film profile], which was pretty much shot undercover, Agnieszka Holland focuses on the tragic and little known ups and downs of illegal Belorussian immigrants who are regularly rejected by Poland, while Woman Of [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Małgorzata Szumowska, Micha…
film profile] by Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert explores the hostility and bureaucratic hurdles facing a transsexual in a country considered to be one of the most transphobic nations in Europe: Poland. Holly [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Fien Troch
film profile] by Belgian director Fien Troch, who scooped a trophy in Orizzonti 2016 for Home [+see also:
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trailer
interview: Fien Troch
film profile], also shows promise, examining adolescent malaise through the story of a young woman endowed with strange, extrasensory powers. Die Theorie von Allem, which is Timm Kroger’s first work, is a gothic nightmare digging down beneath a mountain of German cinema, while the latest film by the brilliant Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Suzy Bemba
Q&A: Yorgos Lanthimos
film profile], reworks themes typical to gothic cinema in an extraordinarily fanciful way and thrusts Emma Stone into the shoes of some sort of female version of Frankenstein.

Among the various American filmmakers mentioned, Bradley Cooper’s second directorial effort after A Star Is Born - Maestro, a biography of musical genius Leonard Bernstein - is definitely long-awaited in Venice, while Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], co-produced by Italian firm The Apartment together with US' American Zoetrope, attempts to tell the story surrounding Elvis Presley’s very young wife. Much anticipation also surrounds The Killer, a thriller starring Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton and produced by Netflix, which will see David Fincher returning to Venice 24 years after his presentation of Fight Club. Michael Mann will also be returning to the festival after many years of absence with his ambitious project Ferrari [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valentina Bellè
film profile], starring Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz and homing in on a crucial moment in motor racing. Origin by Ava DuVernay, based on a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson, will likewise grace the agenda.

Other movies not to be underestimated in the race for the Golden Lion include El Conde by Chile’s Pablo Larraín, which is a baroque reinterpretation of the vampire genre, featuring a reanimated version of Pinochet, Memory by Michel Franco, which is set in New York and stars Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard, and Evil does not Exist by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who won an Oscar for Drive My Car.

Noteworthy films screening Out of Competition, meanwhile, include Roman Polanski’s highly anticipated movie The Palace [+see also:
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trailer
film profile], written alongside Jerzy Skolimowski; the latest four-hour-long documentary by (93-year-old) Frederick Wiseman, Menus Plaisirs - Les Troisgros [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], which journeys behind the scenes of a mysterious, top-class French restaurant; Coup de chance [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by Woody Allen; and Society of the Snow [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: JA Bayona
film profile] by JA Bayona.

Here is the full list of selected films:

Competition

Comandante [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Edoardo De Angelis (Italy) (opening film)
The Promised Land [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Nikolaj Arcel (Denmark/Germany/Sweden)
DogMan [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Luc Besson (France/USA)
The Beast [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Bonello
film profile] - Bertrand Bonello (France/Canada)
Hors-saison [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Stéphane Brizé
film profile] - Stéphane Brizé (France)
Enea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pietro Castellitto
film profile] - Pietro Castellitto (Italy)
Maestro - Bradley Cooper (USA)
Priscilla [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Sofia Coppola (USA/Italy)
Finally Dawn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Saverio Costanzo
film profile] - Saverio Costanzo (Italy)
Lubo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giorgio Diritti
interview: Giorgio Diritti
interview: Valentina Bellè
film profile] - Giorgio Diritti (Italy)
Origin - Ava DuVernay (USA)
The Killer - David Fincher (USA)
Memory - Michel Franco (Mexico/USA)
Me Captain [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Matteo Garrone (Italy/Belgium)
Evil Does Not Exist - Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Japan)
Green Border [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Agnieszka Holland  (Poland/France/Czech Republic/Belgium)
The Theory of Everything [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Timm Kröger
film profile] - Timm Kröger (Germany/Austria/Switzerland)
Poor Things [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Suzy Bemba
Q&A: Yorgos Lanthimos
film profile] - Yorgos Lanthimos (Ireland/UK/USA)
El Conde - Pablo Larrain (Chile)
Ferrari [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Valentina Bellè
film profile] - Michael Mann (USA/Italy)
Adagio [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Stefano Sollima (Italy)
Woman Of [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Małgorzata Szumowska, Micha…
film profile] - Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert (Poland/Sweden)
Holly [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fien Troch
film profile] - Fien Troch (Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg/France)

Out of competition – Series

D’argent et de sang [+see also:
interview: Xavier Giannoli
series profile] (Episodes 1-12), Xavier Giannoli, Fredéric Planchon (France/Belgium)
I Know Your Soul (Episodes 1-2), created by Jasmila Zbanic, Damir Ibrahimovic, directed by Alen Drjević, Nermin Hamzagic (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Out of competition – Non-fiction

Amor [+see also:
trailer
interview: Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri
film profile] - Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri (Italy/Lithuania)
Frente A Guernica [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi (Italy)
Hollywoodgate [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Ibrahim Nash’at (Germany/USA)
Ryuichi Sakamoto — Opus - Neo Sora (Japan)
Enzo Jannacci Vengo Anch’io [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Giorgio Verdelli (Italy)
Menus Plaisirs - Les Troisgros [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Frederick Wiseman (France/USA)

Out of competition – Fiction

Society of the Snow [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: JA Bayona
film profile] - JA Bayona (Spain/Uruguay/Chile) (closing film)
Coup de chance [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Woody Allen (France/UK)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar - Wes Anderson (USA) (medium-length film)
The Penitent [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luca Barbareschi
film profile] - Luca Barbareschi (Italy)
The Order of Time [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Liliana Cavani (Italy)
On the Pulse [+see also:
film review
interview: Alix Delaporte
film profile] - Alix Delaporte (France/Belgium)
Welcome to Paradise - Leonardo di Costanzo (Italy) (short film)
Daaaaaali! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Quentin Dupieux (France)
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial - William Friedkin (USA)
Making of [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Cédric Kahn
film profile] - Cédric Kahn (France)
Aggro Dr1ft - Harmony Korine (USA)
Hit Man - Richard Linklater (USA)
The Palace [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Roman Polanski (Poland/France/Italy/Switzerland)
Snow Leopard - Pema Tseden (China)

Biennale College Cinema

The Year of the Egg [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] - Claudio Casale (Italy)
Lumbrensueño - José Pablo Escamilla (Mexico)
Árni [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Dorka Vermes (Hungary)

(Translated from Italian)